Nigeria’s Divine Oduduru will be running the biggest race of his career when he comes up against Jamaica’s Usain Bolt on Tuesday in heat 9 of the men’s 200m first round at the Rio 2016 Olympics.
Oduduru might have envisaged he would face the legendary Bolt when he said that he is not scared of any athlete he may run against. This comes on the back of an interview that recently resurfaced where Oduduru said that he was not afraid to face anybody, not even Bolt.
The 2015 African Games Silver medallist will be running in lane 8 and will he hope to get one of the two automatic slots to the semifinal.
Oduduru has a Personal Best (PB) of 20.45s in the 200m which he set last year in Congo Brazzaville, and there’s every possibility that he will have to run much more faster if he is to get off the first round.
Meanwhile Oduduru’s friend and compatriot, Tega Odele who he incidentally has the same PB as him, will be in heat 3 and will be running from lane 1.
Heat 2 is stacked, with Anaso Jobodwana, Yohan Blake and Ameer Webb all in the race. Nigeria-born Qatari athlete Femi Ogunode is in heat 1 and will be coming up against Alonso Edward. While Justin Gatlin is in heat 5, and LaShawn Merritt will be hoping he can get on the podium in the half lap race when he starts off in heat 8.
There are a total of 10 heats and only the top two finishers are guaranteed automatic qualification to the next stage, and four more qualifying as fastest losers.
